A Short History of Collecting: Gallery of Natural History Collections

This gallery features shells, taxidermy, herbaria, and fossils. The shell suite is particularly rich, comprising specimens collected by Émile Eudel during his time as a master mariner in the mid-19th century, alongside fossil shells from various French collections that illustrate different approaches to collecting and cataloguing. Taxidermy specimens and herbaria with historic provenance are rare, though examples will soon enter the TC. Collection catalogues form the core of this category, including rare association copies of the Jacksonian Oological Collection catalogue, a unique manuscript catalogue of a bird collection, and notable shell collection catalogues from the library of Richard I. Johnson (such as those of the Portland Museum and the Earl of Tankerville). The Enlightenment craze for shells (conchiliomania) is represented by Edmé-François Gersaint’s 1737 auction catalogue, widely regarded as the first catalogue raisonné.

Natural history collecting from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties

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The Fossil Casts of Ward's Natural Science Establishment

Henry Augustus Ward (1834-1906), founder of Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York, is remembered as the 'King of Museum Builders.' A student of Agassiz, Ward also studied at the School of Mines in Paris and traveled extensively from Egypt to Anatolia, inaugurating a lifelong series of journeys across the globe. To finance his studies in Paris, including at the Collège de France and the Sorbonne, he sold fossils and minerals, an endeavor that marked the beginning of his commercial career. The great Ward cabinet of minerals was purchased for $20,000 by the University of Rochester, where, after five years abroad, he was appointed professor of mineralogy, geology, and zoology. For several successive years, he spent his vacations in the museums of Europe, producing plaster-of-paris moulds of their rarest and most remarkable fossils, from which he created highly accurate plaster reproductions for the University of Rochester. Ward quickly realized that other museums shared the same needs, leading to the publication in 1866 of the Catalogue of Casts of Fossils from the Principal Museums of Europe and America. In the introduction, he explains that "to accomplish the purposes of general instruction, a cabinet of fossils should be as complete as possible, covering the whole ground, and giving an unbroken view of ancient life. What our Colleges must have as the primary condition of their success in the Natural Sciences,—and yet that which, it must be said, they almost universally lack,—is a consistent and well-proportioned exhibition of all the classes in the several departments of nature. There are many difficulties in the way of attaining this completeness in a Museum of Paleontology [...] With methodic, intelligent effort, and a judicious expenditure of funds, this difficulty may be met and the desired variety obtained. But our Museum still has a defect which it is impossible to overcome other than in one way. Unless the funds to invest have been princely, and the facilities for securing choice material very great and extended over a long period of years, we shall find that our specimens show but trivial portions of the larger and, in some sense, more interesting and important forms [...] The author of these pages has had considerable experience of the difficulties above mentioned, in his efforts during the last six years to give completeness to the Paleontological Cabinet of the University of Rochester. He has found that the only possible way to give this collection its desired symmetry was by the introduction, in the classification, of Plaster Copies of very many of these fossils, the originals of which are either unique specimens or are so very rare that it is altogether impossible to obtain them." The venture proved so successful that Ward resigned his professorship in 1869 to devote himself entirely to his establishment. Although others were engaged in the business of collecting and distributing scientific specimens for museums, Ward alone, through the scale and organization of his enterprise, was capable of furnishing an entire museum. He also became a passionate collector of meteorites, particularly in the later years of his life, a story recounted in the Gallery of Geological Collections.

Folding plate of 'No. 23. Megatherium cuvieri. Fig. 2, Bradypus tridactylus'.

A Nicely Preserved Copy of the Rare 1866 Catalogue of Casts of Fossils

Catalogue of Casts of Fossils..., by Henry A. Ward
Rochester, N.Y.: Benton & Andrews, 1866

Description: WARD, Henry A. (1866), Catalogue of Casts of Fossils from the Principal Museums of Europe and America, with short descriptions and illustrations. Rochester, N.Y.: Benton & Andrews, 228 pp., many in-text illustrations and 2 folding plates (fold-out 1: p.11. No. 23. Megatherium cuvieri. Fig. 2, Bradypus tridactylus; fold-out 2: p.62. No. 228: Plesiosaurus cramptoni). Green blind embossed cloth, gilt lettering on spine (a little faded), bright embossed gilt ornament on front cover, top inner hinges cracked, some marginal browning and occasional spotting. With past owner's inscription "E. Korn" - We learn in the catalogue that: "Many of the rarer and most noted specimens are from the British Museum, and the Garden of Plants at Paris. Others are from Royal Museums in Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Munich, Turin, Lyons, Darmstadt, Haarlem, &e. In America he has received generous assistance in the privilege of copying specimens from the Academy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia, the Boston Society of Natural History, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, and from Professor T. R. Pynchon of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. But by far the most important additions from American sources are copies of the most striking Ichnites—or fossil tracks—from the celebrated Ichnological Museum of Amherst College; and also a series of nearly 200 specimens (mainly of Trilobites and Crinoids) chosen throughout the unrivalled collection of American Paleozoic fossils of Professor James Hall, of Albany. The Ward Museum of the University of Rochester has also supplied originals of some choice and rare fossils in the Vertebrate division, and very many of the finest Invertebrate specimens, particularly among the Cephalopod Molluses, the Crinoids, and the Sponges."

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Natural history collecting during the Victorian Era

"I have seen the young man of fierce passions, and uncontrollable daring, expend healthily that energy which threatened daily to plunge him into recklessness, if not into sin, upon hunting out and collecting, through rock and bog, snow and tempest, every bird and egg of the neighbouring forest. I have seen the cultivated man, craving for travel and for success in life, pent up in the drudgery of London work, and yet keeping his spirit calm, and perhaps his morals all the more righteous, by spending over his microscope evenings which would too probably have gradually been wasted at the theatre. I have seen the young London beauty, amid all the excitement and temptation of luxury and flattery, with her heart pure and her mind occupied in a boudoir full of shells and fossils, flowers and sea-weeds, and keeping herself unspotted from the world...."
Charles Kingsley, Glaucus, The Wonders of the Shore, 1855:49

By the mid-19th century, Natural History had become deeply fashionable throughout the British Empire, from the English countryside to the most remote regions of the Commonwealth. As Charles Kingsley observed in 1855, natural history collecting embraced a remarkable diversity of interests, ranging from ornithology and botany to paleontology. Among the many collecting crazes of the period, Pteridomania stands out as perhaps the clearest expression of the era's collecting Zeitgeist. The term itself was first used by Kingsley (1855:4): "Your daughters, perhaps, have been seized with the prevailing "Pteridomania," and are collecting and buying ferns, with Ward's cases wherein to keep them (for which you have to pay,) and wrangling over unpronounceable names of species, (which seem to be different in each new Fern-book that they buy,) till the Pteridomania seems to you somewhat of a bore: and yet you cannot deny that they find an enjoyment in it, and are more active, more cheerful, more self-forgetful over it, than they would have been over novels and gossip, crochet and Berlin-wool."

Photograph of a fern party (cropped here), evocative of the spirit of Pteridomania (undated; provenance unknown) [in coll.: photograph mounted on cardboard, with a slight damaging fold].

  • KINGSLEY, Charles (1855), Glaucus, The Wonders of the Shore. Macmillan & Co., Cambridge, 165 pp. [copy rebound with three-quarter leather on marbled boards, without the advertisements originally included in the first edition. Unknown A L F bookplate inside the front cover]
The Australian Jacksonian Oological Collection, Bought by Henry L. White

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The Devonshire Ornithological Collection of William E.H. Pidsley

William Elias Helman Pidsley (1867-1905) is mainly remembered as the author of The birds of Devonshire (Pidsley, 1891), which he published while studying law and living in his family home at Broadclyst, in Devon, England. He also published Collecting and preserving birds, as well as a few short notes and articles on ornithology in various journals. Pidsley is less well known as a bird collector. Mullens and Swann (1917:471) noted that "he had at one time, we believe, a small collection of British birds". Pidsley (1891) only mentioned about 16 specimens representing 11 species in his collection before January 1891. Pidsley's manuscript collection catalogue, never published but part of the TC, provides invaluable information about the scope of a local ornithological collection and the bird collecting process: Pidsley had, at the time of his death, around 250 bird specimens, representative of about 100 different local species. He collected birds between September 1885 (in which month he turned 18 years of age) and 1904, with the bulk of his activity between 1887 and 1894, with a peak of activity in 1891. The majority of the cases contained birds that Pidsley himself shot or found, while about a third represent purchases or gifts. Of Pidsley's finds, most were made around his family home in Broadclyst, near Exeter, in Devon. The present whereabouts of the Pidsley ornithological collection remain unknown (Mignan, 2021).

Unique Manuscript Catalogue of a Local Ornithological Collection

AUTHOR COPY - ... British Birds Collected by William E. H. Pidsley
Broadclyst, England: Unpublished manuscript, 1891

Description: PIDSLEY, William E.H. (1891), Catalogue of the Collection of British Birds Collected by William E. H. Pidsley. Unpublished manuscript collection catalogue. Contemporary half-morocco binding, bookplate signed by W. E. H. Pidsley, title neatly calligraphed, 37 descriptive pages of text plus additional blanks, and 31 tipped-in colour plates after Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935). Each case description is delimited by horizontal lines; most descriptions are struck through with a new number penned, probably corresponding to a new case arrangement - We learn that this collection, one year prior to Pidsley's death, was composed of 116 cases of birds and 3 more of mammals (a weasel, a dormouse, and a fox). The birds represented 103 species, with a total of 249 specimens. The entries provide the collecting date, as well as the provenance when the specimen was not shot by Pidsley. We can note for instance that Pidsley's main intermediary for purchases from collection sales was Stevens' Auction Rooms, in London. Among noteworthy catalogue entries are those numbered 50 (serin, Serinus serinus), 57 (kite, Milvus milvus) and 91 (little auk, Alle alle). The serin was the first collected in Devon (Pidsley 1892). No. 57 shows how Pidsley investigated the biography of his ornithological specimens to document their most likely origins. Number 91 described in detail the case in which specimens of the little auk collected in 1895 were displayed flying (left upper corner) and swimming (right bottom corner). More details may be found in Mignan (2021).
Completed by the inclusion of: PIDSLEY, William E.H. (1891), The Birds of Devonshire. Edited with an introduction and short memoir of the late John Gatcombe by H.A. Macpherson. London: WW Gibbins, 194 pp., with map and colour plate. Original green binding, some wear. Inscribed by the author to Edward Aubrey Courtauld Lowe: "E. Aubrey C. Lowe, with Every Best Wishes From his Friend the Author 23rd July 1901." The first handbook on Devonshire ornithology, including some anecdotes and mundane details about other collectors and some local museums, e.g., "At Mr. Hele's death his collection of Birds was sold by public auction. I [F. Pershouse] quite intended to secure the specimen [immature surf scoter] but, thinking there would be no one at the sale who would know anything about it, I put too low a price and unfortunately missed it" (p.108).

Provenance: William Elias Helman Pidsley (c. 1891-1905)

References: Mignan (2021)

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The New Zealand Ornithological Collection of Stephen William Silver

Stephen William Silver (1817-1905) was a London merchant who built, over a period of forty years, a considerable collection relating to the British colonies, and especially to the Australian ones. Although no traveller himself, Silver took great interest in geography, maritime and inland discovery, commerce and colonisation. He is best known for his library of 5,000 volumes, but he also collected specimens of natural history, economic botany and ethnology. Of particular interest was his splendid and unique collection of New Zealand birds (Davies & Hull, 1976:83), which was one of the most complete in Europe. First residing at 3 York Gate, at an entrance to Regent's Park, Silver's library became known as the York Gate Library. Later in life (in 1886?), Silver moved to Berkshire to become Lord of the Manor at Letcombe Regis. It was Sir Walter Buller (1838-1906), an authority of New Zealand ornithology, who formed the collection of New Zealand birds for Silver, called the Manor-House Collection, and wrote his collection catalogue. The birds "were suitably mounted for display purposes in twelve glass cases, eight of which were exhibited in the New Zealand Court at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886. The four cases added later contained many of the rarer species of the New Zealand avifauna and, at the time, these birds constituted one of the finest private collections of birds endemic or strictly confined to New Zealand and the neighbouring islands, comprising 252 specimens and 119 different species, many of which are now extinct, while others are rapidly becoming so, and on this account alone the collection would have become increasingly valuable" (Davies & Hull, 1976:83). We learn in the rare 1888 catalogue that Silver was awarded a medal at the 1886 Exhibition for his exhibit of New Zealand birds which had been mounted by Messrs. Burton and Sons. The York Gate Library was purchased in 1905 by the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, Adelaide while the bird collection was presented by Mrs. Silver to the Oxford University Museum in 1906. Unfortunately more than half of this collection was destroyed by insect pests in the 1940s, including some species now extinct (Davies & Hull, 1976:57). The Silver collection of ethnological material was passed to the Pitt Rivers Museum.

  • DAVIES, K.C. and HULL, J., compilers (1976), The Zoological Collections of the Oxford University Museum, A Historical Review and General Account, with Comprehensive Donor Index to the year 1975. Oxford University Museum, 136 pp. [in coll.: Inscribed by one of the compilers "With compliments, J. Hull"]

A Rare Collection Catalogue, Here Presented to the 1st Earl of Northbrook

Mr. S. William Silver's collection of New-Zealand birds, by W.L. Buller
London: E.A. Petherick & co., 1888

Description: BULLER, Walter Lawry (1888), A classified list of Mr. S. William Silver's collection of New-Zealand birds (at the Manor-house, Letcomb Regis), with short descriptive notes. London: E.A. Petherick & co., 96 pp., in-text woodcut illustrations. Publisher's printed vellum binding with marbled end papers, manuscript title on spine, Earl of Northbrook bookplate, letter to him from Silver laid down at front, dated 28.XII.89. In the letter, Silver starts by "acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the Catalogue of Pictures recently published, most kindly sent to him by Lord Northbrook, which will form a valuable addition to the York Gale Library" and ends by "venturing to forward a copy of a Catalogue of a very fine Collection of New Zealand Birds which he has in Berkshire. He hopes this may be found worthy of a place in the Library of Hamilton Place." Silver, in the preface of his library catalogue, wrote that part of his library grew thanks to the presentation copies sent to him by his friendly personal relations, an example of which is proven by this letter - The catalogue starts as an ornithological guide with detailed descriptions of the bird species represented in the collection with most woodcuts borrowed from Sir Buller's Birds of New Zealand. The collection catalogue starts page 73 with a listing of each bird, per case (from I to XII). It ends with a description of the "frame of moa-feathers" part of the Manor-House Collection, purchased from a unique collection exhibited at the 1886 exhibition and dispersed at its close (with the feathers of the extinct colossal species discovered in a cave in 1874).

Provenance: 1st Earl of Northbrook, Hamilton Place Library (1889-1904). Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826-1904) lived in 4 Hamilton Place (Grade II listed building in Mayfair), where the present book sojourned.

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The Hummingbird Collection of John Gould

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Natural history collecting from the First Empire to the Belle Epoque

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The Fossil Shell Collection of Jean Miquel

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The Shell Field-Collection of Émile Eudel

Émile Eugène Alphonse Eudel (1831-1892), brother of the collection scholar Paul Eudel, was a master mariner (Capitaine au long cours) who later entered the French colonial administration. During his numerous oceanic voyages and his stay in Southeast Asia, he assembled a significant shell collection (Crosse, 1893a:82). Eudel labels accompanying shells preserved in the TC indicate that specimens originated from many regions of the world, from the western Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, with numerous examples collected between the 1850s and the 1870s. His collections of shells and ethnographic artefacts were dispersed at public auction in Paris in January 1893 following his death. His remarkable collection of pteropods was acquired by George Brettingham Sowerby III (1843-1921), while other lots were purchased by the London dealer Hugh Coomber Fulton (1861-1942) (Crosse, 1893b:152). Eudel also sold specimens directly to European collectors, resulting in the wide dispersal of his shells. Thanks to his brother Paul, one of the great French connoisseurs, bibliophiles, and art critics of the second half of the 19th century, the history of Émile's life and collecting practices has been preserved for posterity. The section devoted to shell collecting in Paul's anthology Collections et Collectionneurs (Eudel, 1885) was based on information supplied by Émile himself. Paul introduced it in the following terms: "I reserve first place for my brother's collection, Mr. Émile Eudel, former long-distance captain, distinguished by its refinement. It is reputed to be the richest collection of pteropods in the world. This collection contains no fewer than 151,374 specimens, and my brother spent twenty years assembling it. One must remember that pteropods are found only on the open sea and can only be collected at night, in very calm weather" (Eudel, 1885:283). Paul Eudel also published his brother's travel journal, which provides further insight into both the man and his field-collecting practices (Eudel, 1897). The original manuscript on shell collecting prepared by Émile for his brother's book, part of Paul Eudel's Collections et Collectionneurs correspondence archive held by the TC, is described below.

  • EUDEL, Paul (1897), Journal de Bord de mon frère Émile. Savenay, 106 pp. [in coll.: in original paper binding, one of 50 copies, no. 3, inscribed "no. 3 Tiré à cinq exemplaires sur ce papier, Paul Eudel", from a library on travel books, built over 2 generations in the region of Bordeaux, France. For the author copy, no. 2, see Paul Eudel]

A Manuscript by Émile Eudel: a Unique & Remarkable Resource on Shell Collecting

Part of the Collections et Collectionneurs correspondence archive
France: manuscript, some parts published in Eudel (1885)

Description:Manuscript on shell collecting written by Émile Eudel for his brother Paul, intended to assist in the preparation of the corresponding chapter of Collections et Collectionneurs (Eudel, 1885); 21 sheets, preserved within Paul Eudel's Collections et Collectionneurs correspondence archive. The manuscript addresses all aspects of shell collecting: recommended reference works and acquisitions, the characteristics and psychology of the collector, common and rare shell types, celebrated collections and renowned collectors, the treatment and enhancement of shells, dealers, prices, field collecting, and publications. An excerpt from the text, both amusing and informative, reads as follows: "Shell collectors have the reputation of being pilferers-Some, fortunately very rare, do not make any qualms about pocketing in other collections what they lack- so, many collectors have adopted the system of sticking their shells on cardboards and I even know one that has his entire collection enclosed, for each species, in square glass boxes. We steal by admiring the shell in the hand and sliding it into the wide sleeve, then from there into the overcoat pocket by lowering the arm. One also hides shells in shoes - I saw the abbot Xxx chaplain aboard the frigate Eld ... leaving the cabinet room where the second in command Bxx, today admiral and great collector of shells, kept his collection, walking with great precautions on the deck of the frigate while going towards the ladder of the gun deck. The officer on watch, a smart one, suspecting the affair, came to the abbot and said to him: Well, Mr. abbot, you don0t seem to be able to walk, what have you got? and he advanced on him so as to make him stir more. "Hush! replies Father Xxx - I have some shells in my shoes - the captain can hear you and you are going to make me get caught" - the love of shells led him to confess his petty theft rather than break the shells by walking faster."

Provenance: Paul Eudel (c. 1885-1911)

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A Rare Suite of Shells from the Collection of Émile Eudel

Various modern shells
Various oceanic campains, worldwide

Description: A suite of 23 shell groups, most originally mounted on cardboard or preserved in vials. It is highly likely that the cardboards were prepared by René Langlassé, the source of this suite (see below), who fortunately preserved the original Eudel labels, often affixed to the reverse of the cardboard mounts. Most groups also bear a small paper strip carrying an Eudel inventory number penned in red ink. These labels provide valuable information regarding the dates of collection and the oceanographic campaigns during which the specimens were gathered, whether in Africa, India, or Southeast Asia. The complete inventory is as follows (potentially including some occasional inaccuracies owing to the difficulty of deciphering certain portions of the manuscript text): no. 2520 Rissoa costulata, Adriatique, Deshayes, Jun. 1862; no. 2562 Paludina decisa, Le Potomac, Washington, Deshayes Juin 1862; no. 2565 Paludina unicolor, Inde, Deshayes, Juin 1862; no. 2577 Ampullaria globosa, Calcutta, Campagne de la Marie & Nélie, 1859; no. 2685 Natica melanostoma, St. Pierre-Réunion, Armorique 1ère campagne, 1860; no. 2720 Natica lineata, Pondichery, campagne du Constant, 1850 - Léonie 7 1869; no. 3025 Littorina granosa, Gabon, Campagne de l'Eldorado 7 1852; no. 3040 Littorina muricata, la Havane, Deshayes 7 mars 1865; no. 3652 Nassa tritoniformis, draguè à corété (Bissagods), Campagne de l'Eldorado, mars 1853 no. 3653 Nassa pauperata, Maurice, campagne de l'arme marie, Févr. 1871; no. 3654 Nassa subspinosa, F. Cailliaud, 15 x. 1862; no. 3658 Nassa polita, Gorée, Campagne de l'Eldorada, 1853; no. 3682 Desmoulea abbreviata ?, Gorée, campagne de l'Eldorada, 1853; no. 5084 Nassa retecosa, St. Pierre-Réunion, 1864-1865; no. 5222 Serpulorbis (no. 190 du catal. Réunion), St. Pierre-Réunion, 1863; no. 5257 Nassa vittata, St. Gilles-Réunion, 1865 juillet; no. 6063 Littorina punctata, Îles du Cap Vert, voyage aux iles, Juillet 1873; no. 6092 Natica, St Paul-Réunion, Campagne de la Léonie, juin 1869; no. 6600 Cyclina chinensis, Hong-Kong, Campagne de l'aume marie, août 1871; no. 7050 Planaxis, Penang, Février 1872 Campagne de l'aume Marie; no. 7524 Nassa, Long Island (New-York), Mars 1874, sauvetage de l'alon? Lavalley; no. 7802 Nassa tringa, Nouvelle Calédonie, Rigacci 15 mars 1875; no. 8825 Cryptobia heteropsammiarum, Pondichéry, 1ere campagne de l'Eldorado, août 1877; (no specimen) no. 8454 Ampullaria globosa, Ghoramara near Chittagong, 1ère campagne de l’Edocared, 5 Aug.1876;

Provenance: Émile Eudel • René Langlassé (see below). It is possible that Langlassé acquired those shells during the sale of the Eudel collections, which took place in Paris in 1893.

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A Manuscript Catalogue & Some Surviving Shell Fossils from the Obscure René Langlassé Collection

Catalogue des fossiles tertiaires du Bassin de Paris, by René Langlassé
Paris region: unpublished manuscript after Deshayes, no date

Description: (i) LANGLASSE, René (n.d.), Catalogue des fossiles tertiaires du Bassin de Paris par Deshayes. Disbound handwritten catalogue, signed "Langlassé". The catalogue lists all species described by Deshayes, with a vertical mark indicating those represented in the Langlassé collection. Completed by the inclusion of a carte de visite of René Langlassé with "50, rue Jacques-Dulud, Neuilly-sur-Seine" address and pencil note "de la Société Le Vieux Papier".
(ii) 3 fossils of extinct marine gastropods listed in the Langlassé catalogue, mounted on cardboard labels: Cerithium funatum, Celles (Aisne, Lignites) listed p. 111 and Ancilla canalifera, Hermonville (Marne, Calc. gros.), Ancillaria obesula, Auvers (Oise, Sables moyens) listed page 140.
René Langlassé (1854-1936), who preserved the provenance information associated with the Eudel shell specimens presented above, is a relatively obscure collector deserving of greater recognition in this section. He was a member of several French learned societies, including the Société Zoologique de France and Le Vieux Papier, and assisted in the classification of the shell collections of the Natural History Society of Loir-et-Cher in 1883. The present catalogue, bearing a manuscript provenance inscription by Langlassé and containing inventoried fossil specimens mounted on labels similar to those used for the Eudel specimens, provides further confirmation of the previously proposed Eudel-Langlassé chain of custody.

Provenance: René Langlassé

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Shell collecting during the Enlightenment

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The Shell Collection of the 4th Earl of Tankerville

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The Shell Collection of the Duchess of Portland

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The Rise of Shell Collecting & Conchyliomania

The rise of shell collecting that ultimately culminated in Conchyliomania can be traced to Edmé-François Gersaint's 1736 Catalogue raisonné de coquilles et autres curiosités naturelles.... Edmé-François Gersaint (1694-1750), a preeminent Parisian marchand-mercier, revolutionised the art market during the first half of the 18th century and contributed significantly to the growing enthusiasm for both decorative arts and shell collecting. In the 1730s, Gersaint pioneered in France the sale of artworks, furniture, and natural history specimens, particularly shells, through public auction. Drawing upon practices observed during his travels to Holland, he adopted methods such as the publication of sale catalogues, pre-auction exhibitions, and the auction sale itself. Gersaint further innovated in 1736 by effectively inventing the catalogue raisonné for what appears to have been the first natural history auction held in France. Between 1733 and 1749, he prepared eleven sale catalogues, a remarkable achievement (see, for example, the 1744 Bonnier de la Mosson catalogue). His catalogues have been praised by collectors and dealers alike for nearly three centuries, with the art dealer François-Charles Joullain already remarking in 1786 that "les Catalogues de Gersaint sont très-estimés." With regard specifically to shells, Gersaint began selling exotic natural specimens in 1734 following his first journey to Holland in 1733. His most important shell sale took place in 1736 and is documented in the historically significant Catalogue raisonné de coquilles et autres curiosités naturelles.... This 1736 catalogue raisonné is essentially an extended essay on shell collecting and played a major role in the development of the craze. At the height of Conchyliomania, a single shell could command a higher price than a painting by a Dutch master (Dance, 1986:53-54). Among the buyers at the 1736 sale were the aristocratic collectors Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, Jean de Jullienne, Antoine de La Roque, and Louis Quentin de Lorangère, as well as two enthusiastic amateurs, Gaillard (who purchased 35 lots, including four of insects) and Sévin (who acquired 39 lots). The sale realised more than 6,600 livres, with each shell fetching an average of 15 livres; the highest-priced lot, no. 67, described as "une grande huître extrêmement baroque et presque noire en dehors et en dedans," sold for 75 livres (Glorieux, 2002).

The First French Natural History Auction Catalogue, the First Catalogue Raisonné & the Shell Collecting Treatise Leading to Conchyliomania

Catalogue raisonné de coquilles et autres curiosités naturelles...
Paris: Flahault & Prault, 1736

Description: GERSAINT, Edmé-François (1736), Catalogue raisonné de coquilles et autres curiosités naturelles... Paris: Flahault & Prault, title-frontispiece of a still-life of shells and coral, designed by François Boucher and engraved by Claude Duflos (print in first state of three), 167 pp. Contemporary binding with Chauvelin's gilded coat of arms, errata sheet missing - The catalogue is prefaced with 'Observations sur les Coquillages' (pp. 1-29), where shells are elevated to the status of works of art. Next is a list of the major cabinets of natural curiosities, 'Liste des principaux cabinets de curiosités naturelles, et surtout de Coquillages, qui existent actuellement tant en France qu'en Holande' (pp. 30-45) and mentions that Holland is the country with the greatest number of shell collections. The next section is titled 'Liste des Principaux Ouvrages qui ont été faits sur les Coquillages' (pp. 46-61). 450 lots of shells and 132 of Surinamese insects and reptiles are finally described in 'Catalogue raisonné, de Coquilles, Plantes Marines, Mineraux, Insectes, Reptiles & autres curiosités naturelles' (pp 62-161). We learn from the preface that the specimens were selected (cherry-picked) by Gersaint himself during a trip to Holland. Gersaint also mentions that few minerals and plants were presented, not knowing how those would be received by the public (which can be seen as some early customer product testing). Many lots are described in detail. Gersaint effectively invented the concept of the catalogue raisonné here, combining an inventory intended for sale with detailed descriptions, historical and social commentary, and synthesised knowledge relating to identification and classification. Although no engraved illustrations were included, Gersaint succeeded in creating vivid mental representations of the objects offered for sale. By organising knowledge in a manner later exemplified by Diderot’s Encyclopédie, he reached a broad audience and contributed significantly to the popularisation of conchyliology. The catalogue proved highly successful and was actively sought after throughout the 1740s (Glorieux, 2002:395).

Provenance: Germain Louis Chauvelin. Germain Louis Chauvelin, Marquis de Grosbois (1685-1762) was Keeper of the Seals and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under Louis XV. He had a library of 3,000 books and a collection of paintings at his Château de Grosbois. He was also part of the close entourage of the comtesse de Verrue.

References: Chauvelin book auction catalogue (1762:lot1228); Mignan (2018:fig.6b)

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Natural history collecting during the Renaissance

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The Natural History Collection of Albertus Seba

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